#3 Sipamandla Manqele - Exploring African wholefoods, being seen as a 'fallen soldier', adding Africa to the global banquet table and connecting conscious consumers with small-scale producers
14 January 2024
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1 Guest Bio
2 Episode Description
3 Show Notes
4 Time Stamps
5 Transcript
1 Guest Bio
Sipamandla Manqele is a food alchemist, transforming wholesome African ingredients into delicious, nutritious - and convenient - products that are good for both people and the planet. With her company, Local Village Africa (co-owned with partner Mmabatho Portia Morudi), she is contributing to creating a more sustainable and equitable food system, one plate at a time.
The company sources and distributes a variety of African ingredients, including legumes, local honey and ancient grains, and produces a range of products from gluten-free flours, superfood powders and snack bars from the same ingredients.
The long-term aim is to create a network of African agripreneurs to supply equitably sourced and sustainably grown indigenous African ingredients, which Local Village Africa then processes and packages into products for discerning consumers. It’s a win-win situation for both ends of the value chain, as the company connects mindful consumers with ethical producers, while promoting demand for more resilient crops and sustainably produced food from the continent.
Local Village Africa works with cooperatives and small-scale farmers and offers training, support and access to new markets. The company creates products that cannot be found in mainstream retail spaces, and process the indigenous ingredients into convenient cans or packets for easy consumption.
Their signature products can be found on their online shop and at various health shops, including Jacksons Real Food Market and Food Lover’s Market. They have also managed to gain shelf space at selected Dischem and Checkers stores in South Africa.
Before Sipamandla took a partner on board, she was included in the Mail & Guardian's 200 Young South Africans to watch in 2019, a nod to Local Village Africa’s potential and inevitable growth.
Both business partners are part of a growing group of passionate advocates pushing for the importance of indigenous African crops for Africa's food sovereignty and development. And for African food to take its rightful, hitherto often neglected, place at the Global Banquet Table.
2 Episode Description
In this episode, Sipamandla Manqele shares her journey in building the business ‘Local Village Africa’ and outlines the challenges that startups like her face, and how she solved for them.
During the conversation, she speaks passionately about the value of indigenous African foods. She makes a convincing argument for why we should source, but more importantly, process, local ingredients so that they become convenient to use and easy to incorporate into our daily living.
A lot of R&D has gone into Local Village Africa’s products, and in this episode, Sipamandla shares what she found, and what she has produced as a result of her investments in time and money.
All we can say is: Watch this space.
3 Show Notes
02:04 Local Village Africa
04:13 Quinoa is considered a seed but is eaten like a grain. It is a highly nutritious crop containing more protein than most other plant foods. It orginates from the Andes, where it is referred to as the ‘golden grain of the Andes’ or the ‘mother grain’. FAO The International Year of Quinoa 2013
04:14 Soy ‘The dramatic and sustained exponential growth in world soybean production is unequalled by any other crop in the world.’
04:15 Maize and Grace: History, Corn, and Africa's New Landscapes, 1500-1999
04:23 Black-eyed bean (also known as black-eyed peas or cowpeas)
04:24 Bambara / Nyimo / Izindlubo. ‘Legume crops such as Bambara are a cheaper source of protein, and it is one of such crops that can provide the much-needed protein and other important nutrients such as zinc and iron to low income groups of people in the country. …Bambara groundnuts out-yield other grain legume crops, such as groundnuts, in less favourable environments. Moreover, its resistance to the effects of climate change and its ability to yield reasonably well when grown in unfavourable environments, and without artificial fertilizers means that it is particularly suitable for the low-input agricultural production systems in the drought-prone regions where it is mostly grown.’ An underutilized Leguminous Crop for Global Food Security and Nutrition.
05:11 Cassava
05:17 South Africa’s Heritage Day 24 September
05:32 Visual representation: What are the most produced cash crops in Africa? Here are the 5 most produced cash crops in Africa
05:54 Teff is one of the earliest domesticated plants. Teff is native to the Horn of Africa, and one of the earliest domesticated crops, with estimates on its domestication as far back as 4000 B.C. The name teff is thought to come from the Amharic word for 'lost' because the seed is easily lost due to its small size. Did the Dutch 'steal' this African food?
05:59 Injera is an Amharic term for Ethiopian bread similar to a pancake, made usually from teff. Injera is thin, prepared from teff flour, water and starter (a fluid collected from previously fermented mix) after successive fermentations. It is a traditional common ethnic staple food consumed in all parts of Ethiopia and Eretria and some parts of Somalia. Whose Injera is it anyway?
07:16 The Bamana people, also known as Bambara (video link) are one of the largest Mande ethnic groups in West Africa, residing primarily in Mali with smaller populations in neighboring countries. Renowned for their strong cultural identity, agricultural prowess and artistic expression, the Bamana have played a significant role in shaping the history of the region.
08:12 ‘Pap en Vleis’ - A South African favourite dish, consisting of a stiff maize porridge and grilled meat
08:55 How Sushi went global Japanese marketing of Sushi and a History of Sushi
10:40 Local Village Africa canned foods and snack bars
11:56 Lusikisiki is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. According to 2020 statistics, Lusikisiki has a poverty rate of 73%, which is higher than the provincial average of 67%. This means that nearly three out of every four people in Lusikisiki live below the poverty line. Lusikisiki is part of the Wild Coast coastline, ‘renowned for being one of the most beautiful places on the planet’.
13:08 Madumbe or Taro root: Before the Columbian exchange of crops, it was the most widely grown food crop on the planet and also known as the world's oldest crop
14:20 Nigerian author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
14:57 Fonio - ‘the seed of the universe’. The Fonio Cookbook. In this landmark cookbook, chef Pierre Thiam, a native of Senegal, celebrates fonio, an ancient "miracle grain" of his childhood that he believes could change the world.
16:02 How did the Russia - Ukraine war trigger a food crisis?
16:32 The Strange History Of Potatoes And The Man Who Made Them Popular
18:49 Morogo recipe
18:32 Sadza recipe
18:36 Umqa - Hearty easy quick pumpkin recipe (video) and Umqa video goes viral
19:22 Melon (egusi) seeds soup recipe from Nigeria
20:28 Baobab
20:29 Amaranth
26:37 Costs and Benefits of oligopolistic competition in South Africa
26:44 Spaza shops are small informal neighbourhood convenience stores, often run out of homes. A guide to launching a Spaza shop business
27:50 Melrose Arch is an upmarket mixed , office, retail and accommodation precinct in Johannesburg, South Africa
28:12 Rosebank Sunday Market is a modernised flea market that trades on Sundays from the upper parking lot of the Rosebank Mall, found in Johannesburg, South Africa
33:41 Food Miles / The Food Miles Calculator / The Farmer’s Perspective. Bridging the Last Mile to Market
34:21 Driven to Waste: The Global Impact of Food Loss and Waste on Farms /
Save one third: tackling food loss and waste in Southern Africa and beyond
34:30 Facing the Facts: Challenges and constraints facing small-scale agricultural productivity in South Africa / The FAO Smallholder Farmers Data portrait The smallholder farmers' dataportrait is a comprehensive, systematic and standardized data set on the profile of smallholder farmers across the world. (In Africa: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania)
38:23 Former South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd is often quoted as telling Parliament in 1954: “Blacks should never be shown the greener pastures of education, they should know that their station in life is to be hewers of wood and drawers of water.” though I cannot find the original speech online. Grateful if anybody can send it through if they have it.
42:02 Hibiscus / The month of the hibiscus
43:14 South African Food regulations / Food Advisory Consumer Services Summary / the South African Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act: Regulations: Governing hygiene requirements for food premises, the transport of food and related matters / Starting a food business in South Africa /
46:48 Recipes from Local Village Africa
46:58 Chef Mokgadi Itsweng and her Veggielicious cookbook
47:28 African Banquet table book
47:34 Cassava
49:40 Triple Bottom Line / 25 Years Ago I Coined the Phrase “Triple Bottom Line.” Here’s Why It’s Time to Rethink It.
53:10 The Gini Coefficient was developed by Italian statistician Corrado Gini (1884–1965) and is named after him. It is typically used as a measure of income inequality, but it can be used to measure the inequality of any distribution – such as the distribution of wealth, or even life expectancy.
54:22 UCT - University of Cape Town / University of KwaZulu-Natal / University of Fort Hare - all in South Africa
01:01:03 Food Lover’s Market
01:03:03 Jackson’s Real Food Market and Eatery
01:03:04 Farm Table
01:03:10 Local Village Africa Online Shop
01:03:13 Faithful to Nature Online Shop
4 Time Stamps
02:36 Understanding Local Village Africa
03:47 Exploring Local Village Africa’s range of African indigenous products
04:50 Background on Indigenous Foods in African communities
06:08 The Significance of Sourcing Ingredients from Africa
07:57 The Absence of African Foods in the Global Banquet Table
10:30 09:52 Promoting Traditional Indigenous Foods
11:45 The Origin and Early Beginnings of Local Village Africa
15:29 The Challenges and Successes of Promoting Indigenous Foods in Retail
22:40 The Importance of Community Development and Local Farming
33:35 The Decision to Not Become a Large-Scale Farmer
34:05 Tackling the Last Mile: From Farm to Table
34:51 The Vision and Strategy: Bridging the Gap
35:04 Empowering Communities: Training and Development
36:11 The Importance of Small Scale Farmers
36:27 Challenges in Working with Untrained Farmers
36:36 The Power of Partnership in Business: Splitting Efforts for Success
37:38 The Complexities of working with Communities
38:11 Breaking the Cycle: Overcoming the Poverty Mindset
38:45 The Local Village Africa Approach to Empowering Communities
40:57 Sourcing Farmers in Other Countries
43:00 The Entrepreneurial Journey: Challenges and Learnings
45:40 Targeting the Conscious Consumer
49:36 The Triple P Business Model: Balancing Profit, Planet and People
53:54 Advice for Young Entrepreneurs: Embracing Humility and Patience
59:57 The Future of Local Village Africa: Vision and Goals
01:01:15 The Ups and Downs of Entrepreneurship
01:02:53 Where to Find Local Village Africa Products
5 Episode Transcript
Recipes from Local Village Africa
Further interesting background info
The Lost Crops of Africa Vol I GRAINS (free view or download)
From the book description: "When experts were asked to nominate African food plants for inclusion in a new book, a list of 30 species grew quickly to hundreds. All in all, Africa has more than 2,000 native grains and fruits—"lost" species due for rediscovery and exploitation."
The Lost Crops of Africa Vol II VEGETABLES (free view or download)
The Lost Crops of Africa Vol III FRUITS (free view or download)